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The following address was given to Dublin school pilgrims by the Most Rev. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, on the concluding day of the annual diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, 16th August, 1955:

Each pilgrim knows in his heart what the grace of this sojourn at Lourdes has meant for him. All of us hope that it has meant as much for every fellow pilgrim and invalid, for not one of us has failed to experience the gentle mercy of the Mother of God.

Now we know that all who, in obedience to Our Lady’s wish, come to this sacred place to do penance and pray, share in some way in the vision of St. Bernadette. It is not that we have seen Our Lady: that is a grace reserved for another life. We are not worthy to be favoured as the child who was chosen by God to be the confidant of His mother. But here in the Grotto, at Mass, and in the processions of the Blessed Sacrament, we have been soothed by the peace that is, as it were, the perfume of the Shrine. We have been drawn by the stainless innocence of the Virgin Mary. We have been strengthened by the holiness of the Immaculate Mother, who in grace stands next to God made man Himself.Read the rest of this entry →

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The Most Rev. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, combined an unimpeachable orthodoxy with an active interest in the social question (and seemingly boundless personal charity), founding the Catholic Social Welfare Bureau (which gave extensive material and spiritual support to Irish emigrants and their families), the Dublin Institute of Catholic Sociology, the Magnificat Family Guild (which helped people to buy their own homes) and the Catholic Social Service Conference, which very soon after its coming into operation was providing over 250,000 meals per month and of which Professor Patrick Corish concluded “transformed the quality of welfare work that still had too much degradation of the Poor Law System attached to it”. Throughout his tenure as archbishop, his Grace took a keen interest in industrial disputes and supported the Teachers’ Strike of 1946 – which privately incensed the DeValera government.

The following instance concerns a strike of over 1,600 men employed in the rail-operative grades of Córas Iompair Éireann (the Irish state transport company) which began on the 16th December, 1950, after members of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU) rejected the proposed wage increases for the railways offered by the Joint Industrial Council. The Joint Industrial Council proposed that employees be granted wage increases varying from 4 shillings to 11 shillings weekly, whereas the ITGWU demanded a general increase of 22 shillings for all grades. The intervention of the Archbishop was warmly welcomed by all sides.Read the rest of this entry →

click above to read in full(pdf)

CLICK HERE to listen to William Nelson presenting a silver trowel to His Eminence the Papal Legate. (“…a petition to Mary, the Mother of God, for her continued assistance in our struggle against atheistic communism…”)

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The following statement was issued by the Irish Hierarchy and read out from the pulpit at all public Masses on Sunday, October 29th, 1950.

Very Rev. and Rev. Fathers and dearly beloved Brethren:

The announcement that our Holy Father Pope Pius XII would solemnly proclaim and define the doctrine of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady gave great joy to the hearts of the Irish people. In common with the faithful throughout the world they have for centuries held firmly to the belief that the virginal body of Mary, Mother of God conceived without sin, was not allowed to suffer corruption but was taken up into heaven and throned above the angels.

The doctrine of the Assumption is not new; it has been enshrined in the liturgy, the art and the teaching of the Church for long centuries. From the time when the Council of Ephesus defined that Mary is the Mother of God the devotion and belief of the Church unfolded the full meaning of the privileges of the Immaculate Virgin Mother and of the complete victory over sin and death won for her by her Divine Son. So it is that this doctrine has been firmly held even by the schismatic churches of the East.

The fact of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, like her Immaculate Conception, is a supernatural fact that can be guaranteed to us not by human testimony but by divine revelation.Read the rest of this entry →

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